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Post by stephen on Jan 17, 2012 22:31:23 GMT -5
   Got a crazy sensation
Go or stay, I gotta choose
[/size][/font] Stephen glanced around him and made a small noise of disgust. It wasn’t that the book store’s English section was tiny; he could hardly blame them for printing books in their national language. It wasn’t even that the whole store smelled musty and had depressingly low ceilings. It was their science section. He’d never seen such a depressingly lacking collection. There was a half-shelf of textbooks, several of which he actually already owned, an encyclopedia that seemed to Stephen as if it were aimed at ninth-graders or some equally disabled group, and one extremely technical thesis on the mating mechanisms of Drosophila melanogaster that not even he was crazy enough to open voluntarily. Besides that, there were a few volumes in Russian that he would have to read when he’d grasped the language better, but even so, none of them looked all that good.
He hunkered down next to the science shelf with the encyclopedia, on the off-chance it might contain something he didn’t already know, feeling like he’d stumbled into a black hole. Where was the culture of scientific excellence he’d come in search of? He hadn’t met any of his classmates, but as far as he could tell, from the class lists, they were all artsies. Not that Stephen had any problem with the arts. No, what Stephen had a problem with was arties. They seemed to lumber blissfully through life, barely doing a lick of homework and unaware of how little their work would someday pay them and infuriatingly happy. It was like he was the only one in touch with reality. It drove him crazy. For all he knew there would be nobody here he could relate to.
Stephen had arrived in Kamchatsky and dropped off his bags only hours ago. The strangeness of the place was more than enough to put him in a bad mood; each street sign, printed in spiky unfamiliar characters, was a reminder that on top of his own research, he’d have to be teaching himself a language and maintaining impeccable marks. There was already a knot of stress in his stomach. Stephen stuck his nose deep into the pages of the encyclopedia and found a passage on resonance structures that might keep him amused for a few minutes, at least. Despite his unwelcoming body language, he would have welcomed an interruption; Stephen hated to admit it even to himself, but he’d never felt this lonely.
notes: Outfit ; Lyrics - Tom Waits, Invitation to the Blues [/blockquote][/right] |
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Post by VALENTINA AKILINA IVANOVA on Jan 18, 2012 14:44:21 GMT -5
  With the start of classes came the dreaded textbook list. Most classes Valentina was taking required multiple large, expensive textbooks. Of course, she knew this when she signed up for the classes, but that didn’t make her, or her back, feel any better. Armed with her large backpack and the daunting list of books needed, Val headed to the bookstore, hoping to find what she needed as well as other things that would be useful.
Being a native speaker of Russian was definitely a big help. Most of the books in the tiny shop were in Russian; their English selection was limited to the textbooks and some others here and there. It must be incredibly difficult for non-Russian speakers to find what they need in here, Val thought, glancing up at the Cyrillic signs hanging over each section of the store. Val knew what they all meant, of course, but to someone new to the country, it all had to be too much at times.
Once the required items were purchased, Val shoved them into her backpack, hoping to save her arms from carrying all of them back to the dorm. With that out of the way, she meandered around the store, looking for books that piqued her interest. Although she hated to admit it, Val thought of herself as a nerd. She loved anything to do with science or math, and she was constantly reading encyclopaedias and textbooks, trying to enhance her knowledge that much more.
Valentina perused the science section, though there was not much to choose from. Eventually, she settled on a medical journal, an anatomy textbook, and a rather interesting book on quantum mechanics that would keep her going for a few months. While looking at books, Val happened to notice a boy sitting on the floor, reading one of the only English books in the Science section. Feeling rather lonely, since Pasha couldn’t come with her, she decided to strike up a conversation. It would be better than nothing.
"Hi there. I‘m sorry to bother you, since you seem quite engrossed in your book, but do you mind telling me if it is any good? I‘m looking for some… light reading," Valentina said, smiling as she held up the stack of books she was carrying. She spoke in English, since she assumed he knew very little, if any Russian. "I‘m Valentina, by the way. Are you going to the academy in town?" she asked, taking a seat next to him, setting the stack of books gently on her lap. Val gave him a small smile, her large brown eyes lighting up as she smiled.
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thoughts;; I'm interested to see where this goes |
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Post by stephen on Jan 19, 2012 22:58:52 GMT -5
Got a crazy sensation
Go or stay, I gotta choose
[/size][/font] At the sound of a woman’s voice, Stephen glanced up, the beginnings of a scowl on his face. Then he saw what she looked like, and the scowl disappeared. The girl was hot. Like, really hot. She had a slim, shapely body and pale, perfect skin. Her eyes were enormous and doe-like, her features small and perfectly proportioned. Not only that – she was smiling at him. Stephen blinked, then gave the book a contemptuous look, trying to hide his slight flush. This wasn’t the kind of book he would have wanted her to see him reading. It didn’t do his skills justice. “Hah. Maybe if you’re seven.” He slammed it shut. “It’s, like, ridiculously basic, it’s just there’s not much else in English.” He glanced at the books in her arms, and realized – though the Eastern European tinge in her speech should have given it away – that that wasn’t going to be a problem for her. While he couldn’t read their titles, he knew by the cover art alone that they were science texts, and reasonably advanced, too.
Stephen was the kind of person who tended to assume pretty people were stupid. The realization that she was reading the same kind of book he would have been reading triggered several different emotions. For one thing, he was turned on. A gorgeous girl who read anatomy texts for fun? That made her at least ten times more attractive. But aside from that, he was threatened. Stephen was used to being the smartest person in the room, and science was his thing. He couldn’t help comparing himself to her, and finding himself lacking. Not only did he not have her poise, he was reading some stupid kids’ encyclopedia and he only spoke one language. He felt like if he tried to get closer to her he’d be rejected on the spot. His automatic reaction to this bundle of conflicting feelings was to shut himself off from vulnerability by acting arrogant.
He pointed to the medical journal in her hand, knowing perfectly well it wasn’t what she had meant when she said she wanted ‘light’. “That one’s pretty good if ‘light’ is what you want. I read it in English a few years ago. Entertaining.” That wasn’t even strictly true. He’d read the journal before, but a different addition, and only recently. But he was desperate for her to see him as intelligent. He scuffed his toe into the wood floor, not offering to shake her hand. “Stephen. Nice to meet you. Yeah, I do.” Frightened that if he met her gaze, he wouldn’t be able to look away, he picked out a textbook at random from the single English shelf and let it fall open. SN2 reaction mechanisms, chirality, inversion. “Oh, come on, gimme something new,” he murmured at the textbook, then glanced over at her, gesturing to one of the texts in her pile. "Hey, is that one Quantum? That shit's great. Can I see?" He wouldn't really be able to read it, but the Schrödinger equation would be as good an addition to his Russian vocab as any.
notes: That depends on how much patience she has for Stephen's crap. He's going to hate Pasha, ok? I know it's not really done to roleplay with yourself, but since there's just us, I feel like some interaction between our own characters is inevitable and could even be pretty fun. Outfit ; Lyrics - Tom Waits, Invitation to the Blues [/blockquote][/right] |
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Post by VALENTINA AKILINA IVANOVA on Jan 28, 2012 19:49:46 GMT -5
Val knew something odd was going on, though she couldn't quite put her finger on it. Even though she was being polite and kind, this boy, Stephen, was acting like a spoiled, arrogant brat. Valentina wasn't used to people acting like that, but from what she saw in New York City, that attitude was definitely more common than she first thought. Of course, growing up in a fairly strict home, Valentina was taught that she should still give him respect, no matter how rude he became.
"It is interesting. I read it at home, but in Icelandic. We needed to read it for school," she told him, a small smile forming on her lips as he asked if she was reading about Quantum physics.
Hmm...someone who knows his way around physics. Interesting. Very interesting... she though, nodding. "Sure. My favourite part is Schrödinger's equation. I mean, it is in Russian, but I'll teach you the translation, if you'd like," Val stated, taking a seat on the floor and propping the textook open on her lap.
Over the next fifteen minutes or so, Val took her time, going through each part of the equation, translating it from Russian int English. Assuming he could understand the rather complex equation if it was in English, Val did not explain anything further. Instead, she leaned back, resting her head on one of the shelves.
"So Stephen, where are you from, if you don't mind me asking," Valentina asked, curious as to where this new boy was from. He sounded like he was from either the US or Canada, but she was unable to pinpoint the specific country.
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thoughts;; Ugh. I am SO sorry for the wait. Writer's block and sickness don't mix. :/ I promise I'll give you something better next time! |
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